1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an electronic device and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to an electronic device and a control method thereof disposing a sensing unit at a position adjacent to a sound output device (e.g. a speaker or a telephone receiver) to sense whether the sensing unit receives capacitance changes caused by a touch from a user, to replace an original proximity sensor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the market of consumer electronics products, portable electronic devices, e.g. personal digital assistances (PDAs), mobile phones and smart phones, generally utilize touch panels as interfaces of data communication. However, as to a mobile phone, when a user uses the mobile phone to make a call, the user may erroneously trigger touch functions of a touch panel because his/her ear or face is too close to the touch panel. Such fault touches often trouble the user.
In order to reduce troubles caused by fault touches, a conventional portable electronic device usually utilizes a proximity sensor to detect a distance between the portable electronic device and an object, such as a human ear or face, to achieve a button effect which automatically turns off a touch panel and/or backlight of a display panel. However, a sensing range of the conventional proximity sensor is too small, such that positions for disposing the proximity sensor are limited. Besides, the proximity sensor is an optical element, a surface thereof must be transparent and color of a cover plate needs to be additionally considered, such that color of a housing of the portable electronic device is inconsistent, which affects artistry of the appearance. Moreover, the proximity sensor is costly, which burdens the manufacturer.
Therefore, how to improve convenience of the portable electronic device, to add additional functions to the portable electronic device, and to reduce the cost are important issues in the art.